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Hoot! We have had over 25 000 visitors to our blog! It must be true because our ClustrMap says so.

Well, maybe. I think we can agree that just because a car passes your house and the passengers look at your front door that doesn’t mean they have visited you. A lot of “site seeing” goes on while people are looking around online. Sometimes people come back for a second look, but many just drive by. And then there are spammers who come to leave digital crumbs so we will buy their handbags or shoes. So while the milestone of 25 000 visitors sounds substantial, it is important to have perspective on it.

A Question

So I ask: do the dots on the map distract us from our real purpose of reading, writing, thinking, and connecting? Are we too mesmerized by the maps, like crazy collectors? If so, how do we switch our focus back to what matters?

We are grateful to readers. We love the visitors who arrive, look around, READ, and perhaps leave a thoughtful comment. Our goal is to connect with others and to create blog posts that are worthy of their time.

Celebrating With a RrrAWRRRR!

One class we are (re)connecting with is the Pirates of Rm 162 and their teacher Mr. Miller. Last year they sent the Huzzahnian Dragon, a geocaching travel bug our way and we tracked it as it travelled from California to the eastern United States and on to our own back yard. He waited in our room for the right moment, and a milestone day seemed like the right moment to send him home.

On the Hunt

Seeking the Cache

The brave Huzzahnians remembered exactly where the geocache was from last year hunted high and low for the location of the geocache. We walked into the woods trekked over arduous terrain over a light skim of snow through a raging blizzard to get to the hidden treasure. Keen eyes noticed that the cache was exposed spotted the cleverly disguised geocache. We logged our visit in the log book performed a ritual dance dressed in feathers and furs to appease the forest trolls and then headed back for Music class began the onerous journey back home. What a day!

The Deep, Mysterious Woods, temporary home to the Huzzahnian Dragon

Friends, Romans, Huzzahnians–

–Lend me your thoughts: go back to the question I asked–does the ClustrMap distract us? Motivate us? Give a false sense of audience?

This little video is dedicated to our friends in Mr. Miller’s class in California. We think they are pretty marvelous. They gave us the gift of this geocaching adventure, and we are grateful. We enjoyed our conversation with them via Skype this week, and well, we are making plans to send a little adventure their way. But Shhh! Don’t tell them!

Over the weekend a geocacher by the name of Lazonain deposited the Huzzahnian Dragon travel bug in a geocache near our school. To know more about how this adventure was begun by Mr. Miller and his class, read here and here.

With the help of a Mr. Berry, our principal, and a GPS, we took a little walk and located the cache on Monday morning. It was a beautiful fall day here so the walk in the forest was especially sweet. Pictures of our adventure coming soon!

Please give us some feedback on the survey below or in the comments. Is this adventure over or does a new adventure await us?

I can imagine what it’s like when a detective interviews many witnesses–no one tells the same story! So it is for the Huzzahnian Dragon. None of the commenters on this page seems to agree on what the real deal is with this traveling creature. Even the nice folks in Mr. Miller’s class in California can’t get their stories straight–and they met the dragon first! Oh, well. We will just have to find out from the Dragon him-her-itself when he-she-it gets here! Meanwhile, here is a smurged (real word) version of the story…see if you can figure it out (click to see full size).

According to Geocaching.com, there are 1 210 622 active caches all around the world. It’s an outdoor sport–a hide-and-seek sort of game–that’s only been around for a decade. Geocachers hide things for others to find. Some of the more active geocachers have thousands of finds. Such is the case with VCTrails, an avid cacher who is currently transporting our dragon: he has over 3400 finds to his credit! Some caches contain travel bugs that are on their way somewhere. The Huzzahnian Dragon is travelling to a cache near us!

The dragon started in California, near San Miguel. He/she/it was placed in a cache by Mr. Miller, then sat in the dark for three weeks. Luckily for us, he/she/it was was found by VCTrails who is heading north to–of all places– Vancouver, British Columbia, just a ferry ride and one hundred or so kilometres away!

And what an adventure he/she/it is having! Take a look at these photos by VCTrails (captions added–but I am sure that is what the dragon was thinking): All three were taken at Redwoods National Park. The map at the bottom shows how far the dragon has gone–more than a 1000 km. We are really grateful that VCTrails is going out of his way to show our dragon a good time.

Huzzahnian Dragon: hero, villain, or just a regular guy?

So what is this dragon like? Well, cute for sure, but about other important things? Is it a boy or a girl? Young or old? Friendly? Quirky? Intellectual? What does this dragon eat? Drink? Read? What does he/she/it sound like? Does he/she/it miss the kids in Room 162? (If you are from Room 162, please let us know how you are managing without him/her/it.) Would this dragon be a good partner in charades? Does he/she/it have good table manners? What do you think? We are starting a new page with our best guesses about the Huzzahnian Dragon. Please feel free to add your thoughts there! But if you just want to say hi, or tell us about your geocaching experiences, please comment below. And VCTrails, we’d love to hear from you!